Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Spanish Classes

I've done it. I started Spanish lessons. This is day 2 of my committed 20 days. I will see how I progress after the 4 weeks to determine how to proceed with improving my language skills.

Classes are every week day for 4 hours. The first 2 hours are grammer with one teacher and the second 2 hours are conversation with another teacher. Very intense! The class is small, just 3 of us. One student from San Francisco and the other from Switzerland. The lessons so far are review which I really need anyway. I cannot imagine what we will be doing by week three, surely we will have covered most of the grammer by then.

I drive downtown to the language school (Becari) which takes me about 20 minutes. Tanya and I walked the route on the weekend and it takes about an hour. Of course it is all downhill, much longer to walk back. Parking is always an issue especially in inner-city. I thought that I would be able to find street parking beore 9:00 AM but no. However there are a few parking lots. This does not mean open lots or parkades as in Toronto. These are more like a covered garage or a closed in (walled) space that probably doesn't hold more than 20 cars. Auto security is definitely an issue here and besides there are not many open spaces in the city.

So I found a parking garage on the next street south of the language school. Did I mention that like most older, big cities the streets are one-way? So to get to my garage I have to drive past the school for 2 blocks then turn left twice to drive back one and a half blooks to get to the garage.

This morning when I drove up to the door it was closed. The staff were outside and one was on the telephone. Apparently the guy with the key was late and it was 8:45 AM. So I had to find another lot which meant that I had to circle around using the one-way streets to get to the other close lot which is usually full because it doubles as a hotel parking garage and only has about 15 spaces. Fortunately there was a spot for me.

I have been paying about C$6 for half day parking. Very reasonable.

Anyway...if my Spanish improves I will attempt a post in Spanish. Stay in touch.

2 comments:

Angela Rose Lapierre said...

Oh! A Spanish post...Ayla and I will have to start learning some rudementary Spanish...I took a class but is so long ago!

I think a Spanish post would be great...it will get us in practice :)

Love you guys
xxxx
A & A

Anonymous said...

Susan and I taught ourselves rudimentary Spanish daily on the balcony overlooking our garden. It was "muy bueno"! essandee